No justice for Lasantha

In January 2008, Lasantha Wickrematunge – Editor of The Sunday Leader – was brutally murdered in Colombo. Each January, as former colleagues and family commemorate the anniversary of his death, his killing continues to be a symbol of impunity and the systemic failure of the Sri Lankan State to find and prosecute his killers and hold to account those who seek to silence the free press through violence and bloodshed.

Lasantha’s daughter Ahimsa Wickrematunge has claimed that the killing of her father is linked to the corrupt ‘MiG Deal’ he was about to expose. Then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his cousin Udayanga Weeratunga were accused in this scandal in which second hand MiG 27 aircraft with government money were transferred to a secret bank account in the name of Bellimissa in the British Virgin Islands. The account was opened in 2006 just before the deal. When the MiG deal fell into media spotlight in December 2006, it was highlighted as a government-government but later investigations revealed that the payment was made to a mysterious third party, Bellimissa Holdings, UK which was a ghost company that did not exist in any form.

With the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) taking over the investigation into the killing in 2015 certain facts came to light about how shadowy sections of the security establishment were involved in the murders, assaults, and abductions of journalists. A team of Special Forces trained intelligence officers stationed at the Tripoli army base were particularly involved in the killing of Wickrematunge, the abduction of journalist Keith Noyahr and the assault on editor Upali Tennekoon. At least two other persons, innocent Tamils from Vavuniya were murdered to cover-up Wickrematunge’s murder and muddy the waters and cast blame elsewhere. The Inspector General of Police who orchestrated this cover up was appointed as a Commissioner to the Office on Missing Persons by president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The two key policemen who were investigating the Wickrematunge murder were hounded by Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government soon after the presidential election in 2019. Director of the CID, Shani Abeysekera was incarcerated for over 11 months over trumped up charges and the Inspector of Police Nishantha Silva had to flee the country in fear of his life. The latter has since testified at an international “people’s trial” in which he has given details clearly linking Rajapaksa to the murder of Wickrematunge and many other incidents of violence against senior journalists. Neither of these police officers have been compensated for the suffering they had to endure for doing their jobs.

The political machinations and deal making have ensured that Wickrematunge and his family are denied justice even after 14 years since his murder. It is well known that a former minister in the Yahapalana government in charge of Law and Order compromised the investigations by the CID, even going as far as leaking sensitive information to Rajapaksa’s personal lawyer. Both these individuals are now holding high offices in the Ranil Wickremesinghe government while Rajapaksa was on vacation in a foreign country this week.

It is blatantly clear that the judicial system of Sri Lanka is unable to deliver justice for Wickrematunge and many others who have faced the same fate. The only option available for the victims and their families is to seek international and extraterritorial jurisdiction for these crimes. However improbable of justice being delivered for the assassination of Wickrematunge through the Sri Lankan judiciary, it is necessary to continuously expose not only those who committed this heinous crime but those who protected the killers and covered up their crimes.